


Women's Work

by Schuyler



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 06:39:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2571821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schuyler/pseuds/Schuyler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There will always be a sisterhood of SHIELD women.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Women's Work

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the Agent Carter trailer.
> 
> Dedicated to the Spaceknights.

Melinda May had cocked her hip when Phil Coulson walked through the double doors into the Combat Training Center. He was a year behind her, but she’d seen him around the Academy at parties and in lectures. “Huh. Don’t get many of your kind up here.” 

Phil had grinned. “I took yoga in college. I’m used to being the only guy in a class.”

All of SHIELD’s best firearms scores were held by men. It was traditional. Male agents stuck to the ranges. The hand-to-hand combat classes, especially the elite ones at the CTC, were exclusively the domain of women, which was why the students referred to the white stone building as The Cloister. It had been like that since day one, when Peggy Carter taught hand-to-hand. Melinda, who was TA’ing Advanced Unarmed Combat that semester, figured it was because men had never been fond of being shown up by women and Peggy Carter’s demonstrations were probably legendary, but it would figure that the world’s biggest Peggy Carter fanboy would give it a shot. “Well, come on. Take off your shoes and grab a mat.” 

The first day, Phil had been thrown four times and taken a shin to the stomach. The women had gotten it just as bad, but SHIELD women were tougher than SHIELD men. They’d had to be. At the end of class, Melinda had offered Phil a hand up. “You okay? You still have four days to drop the class.”

He’d shook his head and grinned. “This is important to know. Can’t quit just because it’s hard.”

 *

Phil has always deferred to Melinda in matters of combat. He is the king of tactics and planning, but has never been able to pin Melinda. It was still a surprise that night when he showed up at her apartment and asked for a favor, but less than 24 hours later, she was bouncing on her toes in her favorite of the practice rooms, facing off against the Black Widow. The Widow was smaller than Melinda thought she would be, cagey and keeping an eye on all exits. Melinda had already asked Phil and Clint to leave. An audience wouldn’t help. 

Melinda put her arms up. “Before I figure out what you need to learn, I need to find out what you know.” 

Phil’s eyes went wide when Melinda and Natasha came out of the practice room an hour later, both of them scratched and grinning ear-to-ear. “We’ve worked out a training program,” Melinda said. “So I have her Tuesday and Friday afternoons.”

* 

SHIELD hand-to-hand has a very particular style. It’s dirty and it’s fast and it relies more on pain and incapacitation than pins and falls. It’s designed to allow the physically smaller opponent to prevail, even against a flood of enemies. Now that SHIELD has fallen, it’s how Melinda can spot the former SHIELD agents among Hydra’s ranks. It’s why she has to start Skye from the beginning, overwriting the punching and flipping Ward was trying to teach her (all techniques from the required Hand-to-Hand Tactics 1 course) and teach her the Cloister’s way of winning fights. Neither of them voice the suspicion that Ward taught her a system that she could never use to overpower him. 

The Cloister was Melinda’s favorite part of the Academy, and it clearly does Skye some good to be brought into that sisterhood, both to learn how to win fights and to have the companionship of other women going through the same shit. When Jemma and Bobbi return from deep cover, the four of them start training together, and it almost feels like home in the way the Cloister did. Late night practice, watching how much better Skye and Jemma are getting, letting Bobbi train her on batons, then sitting around to complain about how things are going, to needle each other about their relationships and gossip and relax. Melinda finds herself laughing with them. 

Melinda looks forwards to those nights. After so much, this feels good.


End file.
